David Benioff and D.B. Weiss appeared on the latest episode of the UFC Unfiltered podcast and explained that due to the long-awaited arrival of winter in the season six finale, filming has been pushed back for season seven. “We don’t have an air date yet, but this year will probably be a little bit later,” Weiss said. “We’re starting a bit later because at the end of this season, ‘winter is here,’ and that means that sunny weather doesn’t really serve our purposes any more. So we kind of pushed everything down the line so we could get some grim grey weather even in the sunnier places that we shoot.”

Williams’ comments echo those of her co-star Kit Harington, who told The Hollywood Reporter earlier today that the show was going to “get very bleak before if there is a happy ending.” Harington was a bit more specific in his comments, citing the White Walkers and their army of undead soldiers as potential players in the wars to come